Jack me in, give me direct control, make the binary data more real, more tangible, more immersive.

It seems amazing that in only 30 or 40 years the computer and its surrounding technologies have come so far that today the computer-brain interface is becoming a reality.

One-way communication, sending our thoughts or intentions to a computer has become possible. The technology is in its infancy but it is very exciting, maybe in another 30 or 40 years we will be able to  download data, learn, share dreams, or collaborate on projects by forging a bi-directional connection with a computer, maybe even a computer that another person has implanted or is wearing.

Only time will tell but as of now there are three consumer grade devices that have been developed, We are going to compare them, their features and their limitations. Of the three one looks more promising than the others, it looks like it actually works.

About brain waves:

• beta-waves occur in situations where brain is heavily involved, states associated with normal waking consciousness.
• alpha waves are the opposite - non-involvement When you sit down after doing something and just relax, meditate, take a walk - you're in the "alpha-state",They are thought to represent the activity of the visual cortex in an idle state.

So Who Makes The Devices And What Are They Capable Of?

NeuroSky MindSet headset

NeuroSky only uses one electrode, can't detect conscious thoughts and doesn't identify or interpret facial expressions. This makes headsets based on NeuroSky technology very low cost, easy to put on but also very limited in scope and application.

NeuroSky has publicly demonstrated the ability to detect two types of brain waves with their sensors. how attentive the user is feeling and how relaxed the user is feeling. These are two independent readings. Other states, including anxiety and drowsiness were also planed to be included but at this point documentation is sparse and demonstrations are un-inspiring. Demonstrations never show more than two actions translated to controls. Most often applications or demos using this head set show people pushing or pulling a 3d object. Though there was an SDK released for the device earlier this year  it seems too limited to be anything more than a gimmick or tech demo.

OCZ’s nia - Neural Impulse Actuator

This has three forehead electrodes, ocular sensors and allows multiple mapped profiles.

This is available now if you look on Amazon or e-Bay you will probably find a unit for less than $100 US . It was the first consumer device on the market, OCZ hoped that the early release and low price would boost its market share. This may not technically be a brain-computer interface. Even though the name "Neural Impulse Actuator" implies that the signals originate from some neuronal activity, what is actually captured is a mixture of voluntary and involuntary nerve signals, muscle and skin activity that should be summarized as bio-potentials rather than pure neural signals. The name Neural Impulse Actuator is justifiable since the secondary signals are under neuronal control.

Bio-potentials are electric quantities such as a voltage, current or field strength, that are caused by biological chemical reactions. The NIA detects these quantities at a gross level and performs an analysis to simplify these inputs into different frequency components that you can assign to individual computer commands. The significance of this is that rather than "reading" or translating your thoughts, the NIA detects the most basic components that make up your thoughts.

This can be viewed in the "Brainfingers" screen of the OCZ's configuration utility.  Control over the computer in either the desktop or gaming environment is done by binding keys to different zones within as many as three vertical "joysticks". The user can bind these signals to any keystroke using the driver and configuration software. A Brainfinger is a frequency range that is detected by the NIA and bound to a key or command. The Brainfingers screen displays the real-time status of all brainfingers as well as the glance and muscle data. Looking at the interface below that might make better sense.

Because the thought patterns / techniques required to achieve a desired frequency range are abstract it is hard to describe a method, this is probably why the documentation on setting up the NIA is fuzzy at best. As a result the user needs to practice and evolve the ability through some trial and error.

Most people have the most success with the device when binding keys and actions to jaw clenching, brow movements and eye movements. Used in this manner it would seem more accurate to characterize the controller as a "reader of body language" but with practice it is capable of much more. And even according to the developers it does require a lot of practice.

Sadly the NIA  has been a poor performer. The difficult learning curve has been an obstacle to its success. The device also needs to be re-calibrated each use ( a tedious process ) and it has problems with grounding. Static electrical interference makes it almost unusable for some people.So much so that they released this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yOSPTpc63E

Emotiv EPOC by Emotiv Systems

This is the one I am interested in so I may have bias, If it performs like the demos I have seen I will be one of the geeks that will buy it within the first two weeks ( I will write a review ). Emotiv Systems has said it should be available befor the end of the year at a price less than $400 US

Why am I interested?

It seems the company hasn't produced this  "on the cheap"  they are aware that enthusiasts and early adopters will pay the price to have a good and interesting product. 

The Emotiv EPOC has  14 electrodes, which is only five less than a standard medical EEG. It also has a two-axis gyro for measuring head rotation. The unit has four categories of input.

• Conscious thoughts (this is the most exciting to me)
• Emotions
• Facial expressions
• Head rotation

Like the other units you must first train the headset to recognize what kind of thought pattern equates to an action.

There are demos available showing the use of conscious thought allowing up to 12 kinds of movement  These are controlled by detecting your "intent" to move by measuring the alpha-range activity that is seen over the sensorimotor cortex. The available motions have been listed as;

Six Directions:

• left
• right
• up
• down
• forward,
• zoom

 Six Rotations
 

• turn left
• turn right
• clockwise
• anti-clockwise
• sway backward
• sway forward

plus 1 other visualization "disappear"

Conscious thoughts

Due to the complex detection algorithms involved, there is a slight lag in detecting the intent of a user and then translating this to an action. At present this makes the device unsuitable for the time critical action in a FPS game but it would serve well as a supplementary control or in other games which have a more forgiving pace. The current driver at present is only able to listen for any 4 of these motions at one time but the degree of freedom this allows is still impressive. 

Emotions

"Excitement", "Engagement/Boredom", "Meditation", and "Frustration" can currently be measured. Emotiv admits that the names may not perfectly reflect exactly what the emotion is, and says that they may be renamed before market launch.

If it can detect that  "OMGWTF- panic"  feeling you get in an FPS when a player with a knife sneaks up on you I will bind it to my grenades.

Facial expressions

Individual eyelid and eyebrow positions, eye position in the horizontal plane, smiling, laughing, clenching, and smirking can currently be detected. This feature is similar to the features of the OCZ-nia mentioned above. The expressions are detected by the EEG sensors picking up signals to facial muscles, rather than by reading brainwaves. Unlike reading mental activity, these detections are very fast (10ms) the impulses are easier to detect and translate, this opens up the possibility to use the device in faster games like FPS's.

Sniping - zoom in by winking , steady the rifle by holding your tongue or squinting. T-bag by laughing

Head rotation

Yaw and pitch can be detected by the devices gyros, and isn't related to the EEG features.

Software

EmoKey will be provided in order to bind commands to keys, key combinations and macros..It is used to emulate keystrokes based on combinations of thoughts, feelings, and facial expressions. Any EPOC detection can be paired with keystrokes or a string of keystrokes through the user interface.

Below is a talk and demo given last year for the device

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